Pumpkin Dress

So yesterday we staked our claim as a low volume blog.  And then today we've got another post up.  This is because it is time sensitive.  It's Halloween adorableness and we wanted to get it passed along.

Found this pattern at City Craft.  It is modkid sewing patterns by Patty Young, http://www.modkidboutique.com/.  The pattern has great directions and how to pictures, so this post is less of an actual tutorial...and more of a "Look What I Did."  :-)

My mom (known to Courtney and Chelsea as Grammy) and I made this dress together at her house.  We dug thru her cabinets of fabric and found some good Halloween options.  I should mention she has years and years and years worth of saved fabrics.  Options are plentiful.  We used the pumpkins for the top and 2 of the panels of the skirt.

To make the skirt the pattern calls for 6 strips of fabric 9" wide X 14" long.  I decide to use 8 strips cut smaller...if you're a beginner, you might just want to stick to the pattern.

This is the skirt sewed together.  We used 2 types of pumpkin fabrics and two black and white prints.  If you're looking at it wondering how this is going to end up cute...just wait for it.  It all comes together.

We sewed the shoulder seams together.

Next we added the sleeves.  These sleeves are so adorable on little girls.

Bias trim around the neck.  This is left over from the pink dress, but we had enough and it looked great with what we were doing.

Attach the skirt to the top.

Add bias trim to sleeve.

Bias trim for the bottom of the dress.

Make the obi (belt).  The pattern has very good instructions for this.  We didn't have ribbon for the ends so we used fabric.

Dress is ready to send to Heidi Sage to wear for the month of October.

And she looks adorable.  And, yes, we're totally biased...but certain your little sassy britches will look just as cute.

Love my lil' "punkin",

Halloween Can Be Pink!

Have you missed us??  Sorry about just falling of the face of the Earth.  We all got a little swept up in our lives for a while.  I'm sure you can relate.  In order to continue with our blog, but not overwhelm ourselves, we've decided this blog is going to be a low volume blog for a while.  We'll post ideas when we have them, and give you time to peruse other sites when we don't.  Just as we can't get 5 posts up a week, we figure you probably can't get 5 projects done in a week.  :-)  

I truly underestimated the amount of work 3 small kids and a house on the market would be.  And Chelsea is finishing up her last semester on her MFA and getting ready for her final show.  And Deborah just started a new job.  So we're busy, no doubt...and looking forward to when the day comes that we have more time to blog!

Now see below, as Deborah has a great post about an adorable dress she made for Miss Heidi Sage.

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Not sure if you remember, but Heidi Sage had quite the Halloween wardrobe last year.  And last year we went with the typical black/orange/white color combo.  But THIS year, we decided to mix it up a bit and got with pink and black....she is a girl, after all.

Chelsea found this fabric at City Craft and the pattern at Poppy Patterns.  I have used this pattern several times for Heidi Sage.  The pattern has three different sleeves.  For Heidi Sage I used the Bell Sleeve and for Emery (who also got a tiny version of this dress) I used the Short Puffed Sleeve.  My mom also helped me make these dresses.

This is a very simple to dress to make.  Very good for the novoice sewer.  Hint Hint, Courtney.  Chelsea chose three fabrics.  The main part of the dress will be gray, the sleeves are pink and all the bias strips will be black.

We made several different sizes of bias strips.

The front/back dress is one pattern piece.

The sleeve makes the second pattern piece.

Pin the sleeves to the front and back of the dress and sew together.  This pattern comes with well written instructions for construction...no reason for me to go recreating the wheel, so to speak.

Sew the side seams.

This is the bias piece for the sleeve that makes the bell.

Top stitch to sleeve and add the elastic.  The pattern does not show this version.  I added this for decoration.  The pattern gives you measurements for the elastic lengths.

Also added bias to bottom for decoration.

I also added bias to the neck.  The pattern shows how to make a casing by folding the fabric to the inside.

This is a picture of the finished hem.

Added some sparkles to the front of the dress using my Candy Cane.

Ready for Heidi Sage. 

This is little Emery's dress.

Happily Haunting!

Linking to...

I Scream, You Scream...

...and Everyone adores this Ice Cream Bubble Outfit...at least that's the feedback I've gotten from Courtney.

As part of the summer wear I put together for Heidi Sage, I made this Ice Cream Bubble.  Courtney loves one piece outfits because they're easy to throw on, and hard for Heidi Sage to take off...and our sweet girl has found a love for her birthday suit!  :-)

Once again I am using an old, old pattern.  I am sure you can find something simular.  This was something I thought would make a cute summer play outfit.  I used the dress version last summer and thought I would try  the bloomers for this summer.  This is a pretty simple pattern as there are no zippers or buttons.  The outfit only ties at the top.  I'm not sure Courtney could make it, but a fairly novice seamstress should be able to put this together.

As you can see it's not only adorable, but perfect for play!

Summer Sweetness,

Boys' Outfits

I know it probably seems like Heidi Sage is always decked out in the latest and greatest and the boys get the short end.  Not to worry, they're not completely left out....I'm not saying things are even...but they're not left out.  :-D

We have been cleaning out my mother-in-law's house and I have found several treasures.  In a box of her sewing items I found 2 demin iron on patches with a bullrider. I decided since my husband Clint was a bull rider, she probably had bought those for me when I was pregnant thinking that we might have a boy...but that didn't happen.  We didn't even get a Tom-Boy.  We got two prissy britches....that we dearly love.  Anyway...

Not wanting them to go to waste, I decided to use them for my grandsons, Clinton and Rex.

I ironed each patch on a shirt and used a close zig zag stitch around the outside.  Super simple.  I know you can by these types of patches at your local fabric/crafts stores.  Rex got his sewn on a white onesie.  

Clinton got his sewn onto a red shirt down in the bottom corner...since he refuses to tuck in anything!  Found the demin shorts at Target.

I also decided to try Chelsea's freezer paper idea to make Clinton a shirt.  Clinton loves the Texas Longhorns (which I'm sure has nothing to do with his mother brainwashing him),  so I traced a longhorn onto my freezer paper and cut out my design.  With the shiny side down I ironed it to the shirt and got out my fabric paint.  When using a dark shirt you should also use a dark paint.

I had a few problems but seem to make it work anyway.   Note to self-- If using a paint brush to apply your paint you should never spread the paint from the inside toward your pattern edges because the paint will seep under the edges.  Always paint in!  I found the camo shorts at Target.

Crazy 'bout our boys,